Saturday, 30 June 2012

I was both excited and apprehensive of
entering the Ultra Trail South West 100. This would be my second 100m race to
date with my last being 2 years ago. That was at the Lakeland 100 and it turned
out a true disaster coming in at around the 31 hour mark. I have done a lot of
running since the Lakeland but it would be true to say that 100 milers are new
to me.

Many people asked me: “how long will it
take you?” and my usual response was “I’ll be glad to the finish, thanks!”. I am pleased to say I crossed that finish line
and here are my thoughts from the day:

The
Ultra Trail South West 2012

A wee introduction to the course. The event
is organized by Endurancelife (http://www.endurancelife.com/)
who organize a variety of events along the Cornish and Devon coastline
including the Classic Quarter and the Coastal Trail Series amongst others.
Check them out.

The Ultra Trail South West 2012 covers a
100-mile stretch of the South West Coastal Path in Cornwall. The path itself
covers a stretch of around 630 miles and is maintained by the National Trust.
According to Wikipedia:

The
path originated as a route for theCoastguardto walk fromlighthouseto lighthouse patrolling forsmugglers. They needed to be able to look down into every bay and
cove: as a result, the path closely hugs the coast providing excellent views
but rarely the most direct path between two points.

Lesson over.

The race is claimed to be the toughest foot
race in the UK and there are many reasons for this. The multi-terrain is extremely
technical in places, there’s a lot of climbing and descending , with much of
the course exposed to strong winds.

The race covers a different section of the
SWCP each year with the 2012 edition covering a stretch of the coast from
Porthleven to Watergate Bay (north Newquay).

As far as terrain is concerned, runners
will need to tackle road, trail, forest, sandy beaches, very large sand dunes
(some stretching on for 2 miles!), rocks, pebbles, cliff faces, tin mining
areas, and some extremely large boulders! The course has a cumulative gain of
around 6500 metres.

The event started at 7pm to ensure everyone
faced a night section and of course to make the event that little more
difficult.

I have been truly looking forward to this
event for a good few months. I love the coast (I have spent most of my life
along it), it’s the kind of terrain that you can say is truly ‘alive’. The
views of the cliffs and wave cut platforms are magnificent. At night listening
to the sea smashing up against the cliffs adds to the drama, character and
excitement of the run.

My
Approach

For me, it was key to recce the entire
route: a) to know what laid ahead, b) reduce the risk of getting lost on the
day (this didn’t work!!); and c) note key locations to use on race day to get
an understanding of how far I had left. I therefore took the time to go down to
Cornwall on 3 or so occasions to check out what we had in store.

Kit wise:

I was expecting to wear the new Solomon
Sense shoes but they gave me massive blisters so I had to run on the day
wearing the NB MT100 which are 4mm differential and are a reasonably minimalist
trail shoe. The key point to these though were they had a very good rock plate
which really looked after the sole of my feet during the race. Not an ideal
shoe for 100 miles or for any road sections but they would have to do.

I was also wearing the Newline Imotion tee,
Newline Stormpack Jacket and BTN NF shorts.

I would be using my Elete eletrolytes
(seriously, if you don’t use this stuff, DO IT!!). The Salomon SLAB pack, a few
GU gels, some 9bars, a hot cross bun (I know!) and whatever I could get my
hands on at the CPs.

Finally, I taped a pic of my boy on my
water bottle, to give me that lift I may need later on in the race J

Just before the start, I knocked back a
Redbull. I know! Absolutely disgraceful. I picked that habit up doing a
training run with Oliver Sinclair. In training, I knocked back a couple of tins
and was running around like a rabbit so thought it may help on the day. Can I
suggest that this is not a great idea for such a long event?

The
Race

The race started at Porthleven and this is
where I met Stuart Mills and Neil Bryant. It was great to finally meet Neil who
only recently raced and won the 110 Hardmoors and is of course one of a few who
have completed the John o’ Groats to Land’s End challenge (and win it).

I try not to worry too much about who is
running and simply focus on my own challenge that lies ahead. As always I tend
to go out way too fast and pay for it later on. It seems to work for me and I
find it very difficult to play the game any other way. Perhaps this will come
with more experience.

A quick group photo and we were off. I started
at the back and then realized that the first section is very narrow so made the
decision to try and get out in the open and as far up front as possible. I
could see Neil ahead with a guy in front of him who looked like he was
competing in a 10k!

I ran in a group of 3 for a while myself,
Neil, and another guy who looked very fast. I wasn’t sure who the guy ahead of
us was so I decided to push on a bit, knowing that I would probably see Neil
and the other guy later on when I was shuffling along!

Porthleven

After a couple of mile I caught up with the
guy who was knocking out an unbelievable pace only to be told he was running
the relay. Doh! Dan this is not how you should be running a 100 miler!

It was about 7 miles in that I began to
feel a hot spot under my left foot. Shit, this was not a good sign. I had not
had enough time to properly break-in my trainers so this was to be expected. I
passed the relay team and pushed on once I hit a short road section which took
me neatly into CP1.

Just before I hit the CP there is a short
section which requires a run across a sandy beach. As soon as I hit this
section my shoes sucked up the sand with style that Mr. Henry would be proud
of. I reached CP1 threw off my shoes and socks emptied the sand and got to town
working on that hot spot. A quick shake, refresh of my bottle and one of those
fancy foot plasters and I was ready to crack on. The hot spot didn’t affect me
for the rest of the race.

In the famous words of Michael Barrymore,
“What is a hot spot not”? Never could understand what the crowd shouted back…
ha ha.

The second stage was pretty uneventful. Oh
other than not seeing any pirates in Penzance, running past a massive fun fair,
watching a seal swim close into the harbor arm for a bit, and getting some
strange looks from guys and girls on the Friday night razz!

I wanted to get the first half of this
section out of the way. It was mainly on road and I was not wearing the right
footwear for this. But also it presented a short opportunity to run at a
reasonable pace as things were about to get a lot slower and trickier
underfoot. It wasn’t long before I hit the trail which felt a lot better on the
feet heading towards CP2 at Lamorna.

Unfortunately, CP2 had yet to be set up, so
I made sure some relay guys waiting for their team mates took down my number
and time and I cracked on. I was a little concerned that I would be
disqualified at this stage but later learnt that there was technical
difficulties and a few went by without dibbing their ‘dibber’. To be honest I
was a little grateful as it meant I could simply push on and had no excuse to
stop. I knew there were a couple of streams ahead that would provide water so I
topped up along the way. Next stop Land’s End!

I held on as long as I could before
throwing on the headtorch - there were a
few parts which required running through a forest which made it overly dark, so
I threw on the headtorch and prepared myself for a bit of night running.

This section was beautiful (if you could
see it in the dark), it required runners to run through Portcurno, up and past
Minack Theatre (an open theatre carved into the rocks and cliff face). I had a
good view behind me so thought I would take a sneaky look at who was close by.
Nothing. I expected to see Neil and the other chap close on my tail (or at
least the relay teams) but there was just darkness. Not a headlight to be seen.
I later learnt that Neil had a bad episode with a dog and hurt his foot quite
badly which caused him to pull early on in the race.

I had been running for about 5 hrs when I
hit CP3 at Land’s End. This was the first kit drop and I was pleasantly met by
Oliver who ushered me into a nice warm room that had loads of food, chairs, hot
soup, lots of people to talk to and my kit bag with loads of goodies in. Places
like this can really add to your time, so I ripped open the drop bag re-stocked
on nutrition and pushed on. It’s just too easy to sit down in these places so
getting out quick was key for me. I must mention at this stage that on saying
goodbye to everyone at the CP, I tripped over the door step and nearly ended my
race!

Coming out of LE

The section between Land’s End to Pendeen
Watch felt long. In fact I ended up getting lost twice at this stage and in the
same place as I got lost in training with Oliver. This was evident when I
noticed I was very close to the cliff edge and there was a barbed wire fence to
my right. I jumped over the fence and kept running in land (up and over large
hills with gorse bushes to tackle) until some kind of distinctive path showed
up. This certainly cost me some time!

Land's End

The race manual described the next stage
leading to Zennor Head as difficult. That just doesn’t cut it. It was
horrendous, made worst by a lazy and stupid omission that cost me a lot of time
and very nearly my life!

By now my head torch was starting to lose
its light/power and was screaming out for some fresh batteries. At this stage I
should have spent a couple of minutes changing my battery but failed to do so.

The coastal path is quite faint through
this stage with a lot of rocks on the path itself (requiring a lot of hopping,
skipping and jumping) and sharp turns. In addition, there are a lot of descents
on boggle wet grass with boulders randomly sticking out and in places the path
seems to completely disappear. At night, this was really quite challenging.
Even more so, with little light.

There is a common pattern along the coastal
path. Each cliff section usually ends with a sharp descent, a short river /
stream crossing over a bridge, followed by a steep climb up on to the new cliff
section.

Zennor with random people

However, while running the Zennor section I
had come off the trail too far left. I stopped at the edge of the cliff and
looked over the edge, my head torch light simply disappeared into darkness. I
could hear the stream/river flowing some way down which indicated it was a
very, very long way down. I went to turn and find the bridge and as I did, the
mud bank gave way and I fell over the side of the cliff. I must have fallen
half my height, closed my eyes and expected to keep falling. Thankfully, the
muddy bank kept me up and I grabbed hold of two clumps of grass. I was stuck.
If the grass gave way, I was likely to fall. For some reason, I cried out “help”
and realized that it was about 3am with no one around. Perhaps I was hoping
some seals would team together and sort me out!

Realizing that I would be there for a very
long time, I dug my fingers deep into the mud and slowly climbed up and back
over the edge. I spent a couple of minutes to compose myself, had a sip of
water and changed my head torch battery! Close call… That said, it did give me
a wee adrenaline fix and proved that Redbull doesn’t give you wings!!

Shortly after this episode not far off St
Ives, the first relay team passed me. We chatted for a short while and then for
some reason it must have been through early morning tiredness or a rock that
didn’t like the look of me, I tripped over a jagged part of the trail slicing
myself up across the knee, elbow and shoulder. I lay on the path for a while
thinking that the last 10-15 miles was not going so well for me! But hey, a few
more miles down the path and I’ll be at St. Ives. Winner…

The run into and through St. Ives was
pretty uneventful, so was Hayle. I also don’t want this report to go on for another
10 pages!

The difficulty of the last 35 miles of the
race is set at ‘moderate’ but I actually found them to be the most time
consuming. Of course, most runners will lose form 70 miles in but the true time
killer was the large sand dune sections that we had to tackle.

The sand dunes after Hayle simply went on
as far as the eye could see and at some stages were higher than my house. At
times it was like being in a maze. The coastal path simply disappeared and I was
forced to focus on heading in the general direction of the other end. Trying to
run on very soft sand dunes for nearly a two mile stretch was energy sapping to
say the least. A truly savage obstacle to place 70 miles into a 100 miler.

Sand Dune on Coastal Path

Every time I passed through one of these
dunes, I had to take off the shoes and socks and empty a small desert from my
shoes and crack on.

I hit Perranporth (a two mile beach
section) when another person from a relay team caught up with me. We kept each
other company for a while up to the penultimate CP which would lead us into
Newquay. Nearly home! Yeee haaa.

The final 6 miles or so into Watergate Bay
went on for far too long for me (probably because I was not far off a shuffle)
but as soon as I could see the hotel in the distance, I simply let everything
go and roll in. I took a cheeky look behind me to see if anyone was close (you
never know) it would be awful to lose the winning place 200 yds from the finish
line.

Watergate Bay

It was a great atmosphere at the finish
line to be greeted by the team and the locals. I gave the family a hug and the
first thing I could think of was “burger. Feed me now!”

Thursday, 7 June 2012

Last weekend I decided to use a race as a training run along the Welsh coastal path. This was to be my final long run (over 40 miles) in preparation for the Ultra Tour South West on June 22nd. The key for this race was not to taper but to incorporate it into my weekly training schedule - i.e. running on tired legs.

Before I get tucked in to my race report I thought I would mention some tea that I have found to be a great aid for my training.

Recently I attended a course at work which gave away a variety of teas during the break which offered immense flavours. There was a variety of teas available including peppermint tea, green tea, fruit teas, and the like. They are called Teapigs. Seriously, check them out here http://www.teapigs.co.uk/

Messing about on their website I came across a selection of green teas - I like to include green tea in my diet (and try and replace it with coffee as much as possible). In particular, I found this little chestnut:

Teapig Matcha Tea

This stuff is called "matcha" tea. It's organic and it boasts some amazing stats. I have taken a few of these stats from Teapigs' website. 1/4 of a teaspoon provides:

137 time the antioxidants of standard green tea;

9 times the beta carotene of spinach; and

70 times the antioxidants of orange juice.

What's great about this tea is that its 100% natural and can be added to most of your drinks (juice, protein shakes, add it to milk or simply drink it neat). Teapigs provides a hand whisk to help remove any lumps and mix it up. Anyhow, take a look at its benefits, recipes and other useful information here: http://www.teapigs.co.uk/customer/matcha

Personally, I have only been using this for a short while but I have noticed a difference. I have been taking a shot of green tea in the morning just before training and another in the afternoon before my afternoon session and I really do feel that my energy levels have increased. It's entirely natural and can be thrown into any protein shake so it's also very convenient to take. If you don't like the taste then throwing it in some juice may also help (although the taste is not bad at all!).

I try and keep my nutrition as natural as possible and this certainly will be a key ingredient in my diet moving forward. I even added it to my pre race drink at the Welsh Ultra. Although it didn't help with my navigation (yup I got lost again) it certainly gave me the confidence and energy boost that I felt I needed first thing in the morning before a long day ahead on the coastal path! I can see this being a real hit with endurance athletes because if its obvious benefits.

I have only been using this for a couple of weeks now so I will keep you posted on how I am getting on with this tea, especially leading up to the UTSW and UTMB. It will also be interesting to see if it provides the boosts I need when I focus on speed training for the Anglo Celtic Plate!

So, I knocked off at work at 4.30pm and drove for 5 hours up to Anglesey taking in the beautiful views of the sun setting off the Snowdonia mountain range. I eventually reached the start location and decided to pull up on the side of the road and kip in the car until the start of the race the next morning.

Mistake. It was an extremely uncomfortable night and I was still wide awake at 2am watching the short film about Marshall Ulrich's Trans-American run on the iPad. Inspiring stuff.I eventually got off to sleep only for the sun to pop up turning night into day very quickly.

Pre-race nutrition consisted of some home made fruity porridge and a shake (with a touch of Matcha green tea) followed by a very strong coffee!

A short drive to the start line and I was ready to rock n' roll. It was a really friendly atmosphere. I favour coastal runs for two reasons. Firstly, the terrain is varied with some good runnable climbs and secondly it's easy to navigate. Right? Wrong!

I'm in the white cap ;)

The organisers have painstakingly taken steps to ensure ease of navigation including a pre race powerpoint step by step guide over the map, the route cards provided at the start and the fact that the course was marked at difficult navigational points (this was in addition to the coastal path marking which was every few hundred metres). Despite all this I got lost. Ha Ha!

The route is 100k and is an out and back. Starting at Penrhyn following the coast to Lligwy Bay. Check points were at roughly mile 9, 13 (because of the marathon), 21, 31 and back. Ultra runners ran out to the 31 mile point - turning around and heading back home. The terrain is superb. It's not as aggressive as the South West Coastal Path but it does offer challenging trail, some ascent, requiring runners to pass, road, sand, beach, pebbles, coastal rock, fields and the like.

Out and back may seem 'boring' but I can assure you that the views and technical variance is there. Of course, unless you look back when you are running you will have missed some great views. Not so in this case. In addition, it's also nice to recognise key markings to get bearings on where you are and how far you need to go. Finally, it's also very nice to see your fellow runners and sound off some words of encouragement.

In summary the course was challenging but not so aggressive or technical to rule out those who want to try out a 100k for the first time. For some reason I managed to get lost twice and in the same place! I managed to get lost about 8 miles in as I was too far north of the two sisters (chimneys) despite the route card specifically advising that runners pass below both chimneys.

I ignored this and ended up on another public right of way only to be faced with farmland. Totally lost. After wandering around for about 5 minutes I decided to knock on the farmer's door to get directions. He kindly allowed me to run through his land and pick up the coastal path again! By this time 6 runners had passed me. I picked up the pace and managed to get to the front pack a couple of miles down the line.

The checkpoints were great and very friendly. I had my own nutrition but also took bananas and 9bars as additional nutrition. 9bars are a great source of natural energy and are the sponsors of the event. Check out their website here: http://www.9-bar.co.uk/

Not tapering and overdoing the x trainer in the gym (1 hour x trainer session followed by 30 mins core session and 10 mile trail run for afternoon workout) put some strain on my ITB. This led to an inflamed ITB about 35miles in to the race. Not bad enough to stop me from running but still quite painful!

The race was quite steady for the rest of the race until I hit the same place as I got lost last time. For some reason I hit the same footpath I got lost on on the way out. In fact, I got so lost I started to get a little worried that other runners probably had passed me while I stood on the path scratching my head. I had no choice but to scramble up to the top of the coastal rocks to get a better look of the course. I could actually see the coastal path half a mile south (for some reason I had been running away from the sea!). I had to climb down off the rock, over a couple of barbed wire fences and back on the path. It felt good to be back on the path! At this stage, I did not know whether any runner had passed me (the top few looked very strong passing them on the way back in!).

Thankfully, the race went smoothly following the second navigational mishap until I happily crossed the finish line. The organisers had kindly rushed to finish line expecting me to come in a lot sooner, however due to my poor navigation skills, I left them waiting a little longer. Sorry!!

In the end, my GPS told me I had ran 66 miles instead of the 61! These things are not entirely accurate but I reckon I got a few more miles for my money ;)

All in all a very well organised event on a reasonably challenging course. Personally, I was disappointed with my time which was around 10hrs 40 as my expectations were around the 9 hrs mark (I spent a bit of time standing around looking lost!). That said a really enjoyable day and only 5 hr car drive on the way back! Well worth it though